Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a friend over bringing some snakes he wanted me to sell for him at Daytona. While we were talking in the living room this old girl was starting into labor. Right after my company left I went into the snake room and saw she was just pushing out the first one. I kept the camera focused on the babies as they were coming out and opened some of the membranes to let the babies breath. Doing this got me several shots of their first yawns. Each time the pile reached five or six I transfered them to paper towels in plastic storage boxes.
The stats:
Mom is at least 15 years old. I got her in 1992 and she was very rough with an ugly scar on her face. She was just over 5 feet long and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce. I got her from Strictly Reptiles with the deal being if I could not get her turned around and putting weight on in a month they would make a financial adjustment. She gained weight right away but the scar on her upper lip has caused periodic respiratory problems and ugly mouth infections over the years. She has had a couple of regimens of antibiotics and I have used hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips to clean up her mouth as much as once a day for a month at a time. About 2000 I decided I was probably damaging her kidneys with so much antibiotics and decided to not treat anymore. She has actually been overall helthier since then but still has an ugly head for a BRB. She has had five litters before this one but with high percentages of slugs and low overall numbers. This litter was a pleasant surprise. 20 healthy babies with no slugs and no stillborns. I weighed one baby at 31 grams. For the last month she has looked like she was carrying an enormous load of slugs. She has been very very thin in her front half and thick and stiff looking in the back half. Palpating her she just felt very firm like slugs often do. After laying this litter she is very thin and weighs 3 pounds even.
Jeff

I'm soooooo jealous, your second litter and I'm still pacing, waiting for my first to drop. And on top of it all, you get a way cool photo oportunity. Double jealous yup, that's what I am right now.

>>
>>I had a friend over bringing some snakes he wanted me to sell for him at Daytona. While we were talking in the living room this old girl was starting into labor. Right after my company left I went into the snake room and saw she was just pushing out the first one. I kept the camera focused on the babies as they were coming out and opened some of the membranes to let the babies breath. Doing this got me several shots of their first yawns. Each time the pile reached five or six I transfered them to paper towels in plastic storage boxes.
>>The stats:
>>Mom is at least 15 years old. I got her in 1992 and she was very rough with an ugly scar on her face. She was just over 5 feet long and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce. I got her from Strictly Reptiles with the deal being if I could not get her turned around and putting weight on in a month they would make a financial adjustment. She gained weight right away but the scar on her upper lip has caused periodic respiratory problems and ugly mouth infections over the years. She has had a couple of regimens of antibiotics and I have used hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips to clean up her mouth as much as once a day for a month at a time. About 2000 I decided I was probably damaging her kidneys with so much antibiotics and decided to not treat anymore. She has actually been overall helthier since then but still has an ugly head for a BRB. She has had five litters before this one but with high percentages of slugs and low overall numbers. This litter was a pleasant surprise. 20 healthy babies with no slugs and no stillborns. I weighed one baby at 31 grams. For the last month she has looked like she was carrying an enormous load of slugs. She has been very very thin in her front half and thick and stiff looking in the back half. Palpating her she just felt very firm like slugs often do. After laying this litter she is very thin and weighs 3 pounds even.
>>Jeff
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I for one could do with more of them!!!!!!
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dave,
...What is really great is that both of these have been good litters. Of the rest that are gravid several are bigger snakes than these two and look more knocked up.
...What we need is to pick the biggest show in the middle of the country and turn it into the Rainbow Boa show. I wonder how many of the Rainbow Boa forum posters we could get at the same show. I have seen dozens of the Boa Forum posters at the Daytona show.
Jeff

>>I'm soooooo jealous, your second litter and I'm still pacing, waiting for my first to drop. And on top of it all, you get a way cool photo oportunity. Double jealous yup, that's what I am right now.
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>>>>I had a friend over bringing some snakes he wanted me to sell for him at Daytona. While we were talking in the living room this old girl was starting into labor. Right after my company left I went into the snake room and saw she was just pushing out the first one. I kept the camera focused on the babies as they were coming out and opened some of the membranes to let the babies breath. Doing this got me several shots of their first yawns. Each time the pile reached five or six I transfered them to paper towels in plastic storage boxes.
>>>>The stats:
>>>>Mom is at least 15 years old. I got her in 1992 and she was very rough with an ugly scar on her face. She was just over 5 feet long and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce. I got her from Strictly Reptiles with the deal being if I could not get her turned around and putting weight on in a month they would make a financial adjustment. She gained weight right away but the scar on her upper lip has caused periodic respiratory problems and ugly mouth infections over the years. She has had a couple of regimens of antibiotics and I have used hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips to clean up her mouth as much as once a day for a month at a time. About 2000 I decided I was probably damaging her kidneys with so much antibiotics and decided to not treat anymore. She has actually been overall helthier since then but still has an ugly head for a BRB. She has had five litters before this one but with high percentages of slugs and low overall numbers. This litter was a pleasant surprise. 20 healthy babies with no slugs and no stillborns. I weighed one baby at 31 grams. For the last month she has looked like she was carrying an enormous load of slugs. She has been very very thin in her front half and thick and stiff looking in the back half. Palpating her she just felt very firm like slugs often do. After laying this litter she is very thin and weighs 3 pounds even.
>>>>Jeff
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>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Dave Colling
>>
>>www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com
>>
>>0.1 Wife (WC)
>>0.2 kids (CBB)
>>
>>LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
>>10.22 BRB
>>10.15 BCI
>>And those are only the breeders
>>
>>lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Wow Jeff those are really cool pictures,congratulations see you at Daytona my table is going to be the same # 225.
http://www.rubiosreptiles.com

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www.rubiosreptiles.com
"There is an albino at the end of the rainbow"

Ricardo,
...Thanks. I had already marked your table on the map of the Ocean Center. You gonna have albinos at the show? I have heard rumors about an albino BRB at this show but I am thinking that it is actually just incorrectly transmitted rumors about your albino CRBs. We shall see!!!
Jeff

>>Wow Jeff those are really cool pictures,congratulations see you at Daytona my table is going to be the same # 225.
>>http://www.rubiosreptiles.com
>>
>>-----
>>www.rubiosreptiles.com
>>"There is an albino at the end of the rainbow"

very very nice great pics. i am planning on breeding my rainbow this next season and was wondering a good site on breeding them like when to drop temps for how long and to what temp. how much to feed and not to feed and when to and not to when the season usualy starts and all that kind of fun stuff. i am use to breeding balls this is my first for boas. any help would be great.

I live in central California and have to link my breeding more to the local weather. I put this together some time ago and it's been posted and reposted several times:

My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working, this season (2005) from 2.7 adults I had 6 viable litters and one slug/still born. Total of 136 babies. This is what I did.

Cage:

I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.

Please note these are old pics. Not of the 2005 breeding season. The small boxes on the left were some babies on hold and there were even a pair of Ball Pythons housed on the right.

Typical setups are on the right side, top and third down, now all 8 sections are set up the same.

Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.

Substrate/water/hides:
I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.

Heating:
I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.

Feeding/Cleaning.
I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?

Breeding cycle:
Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. (BTW, I am in San Jose CA, does not get real cold here so I have to use the middle of the winter as my cooling time) Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.

Birthing:
As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:

One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.

Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.

Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.

One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.

In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.

Vacation:
Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

snake room pics i was browsing throught the forum and seen those very very nice. i live in wisconsin so norm winter is from octoberish to march-aprilish something like that with my ball pytons i cool them starting november slowly droping temps and lower light cycles than raise both slowly back up in jan. and by end of feb have normal light and heat back.

Thank you, I have to give some credit to Mike Lockwood (flavor). I went to his house last year and was sooooo impressed with his snakeroom I decided I needed to do a snakeroom makeover. At that time I had fewer snakes and the snakeroom was a combination snake/office/junk room. I moved the home office out, cleared out all the non snake stuff and took the whole room over. Have since bought the boaphile cages and racks and built all the melamine racks. I find it's easier taking care of many more snakes with the room so efficient than it was with fewer snakes when the room was a mess. I even expanded to the garage a bit, have some old kitchen cabinets out there I'm using for much of the not needed daily stuff like spare bowls, shipping supplies etc.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Congrats AGAIN!

great pics btw!

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Chris
www.headhunterreptiles.com

The yawns are incredible. I'm now 0 for 2 with actually seeing the birthing process; someday.
Congrats again on a great litter.
Paul

Congrats and I love the pics. That initial "yawn" is the thing I saw that hooked me. It's as if a prehistoric event happens right in front of my eyes.

>>
>>I had a friend over bringing some snakes he wanted me to sell for him at Daytona. While we were talking in the living room this old girl was starting into labor. Right after my company left I went into the snake room and saw she was just pushing out the first one. I kept the camera focused on the babies as they were coming out and opened some of the membranes to let the babies breath. Doing this got me several shots of their first yawns. Each time the pile reached five or six I transfered them to paper towels in plastic storage boxes.
>>The stats:
>>Mom is at least 15 years old. I got her in 1992 and she was very rough with an ugly scar on her face. She was just over 5 feet long and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce. I got her from Strictly Reptiles with the deal being if I could not get her turned around and putting weight on in a month they would make a financial adjustment. She gained weight right away but the scar on her upper lip has caused periodic respiratory problems and ugly mouth infections over the years. She has had a couple of regimens of antibiotics and I have used hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips to clean up her mouth as much as once a day for a month at a time. About 2000 I decided I was probably damaging her kidneys with so much antibiotics and decided to not treat anymore. She has actually been overall helthier since then but still has an ugly head for a BRB. She has had five litters before this one but with high percentages of slugs and low overall numbers. This litter was a pleasant surprise. 20 healthy babies with no slugs and no stillborns. I weighed one baby at 31 grams. For the last month she has looked like she was carrying an enormous load of slugs. She has been very very thin in her front half and thick and stiff looking in the back half. Palpating her she just felt very firm like slugs often do. After laying this litter she is very thin and weighs 3 pounds even.
>>Jeff
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

Linda,
.....Prehistoric event is right. When you are watching a new snake open it's mouth and yawn for the first time it is like a bridge across a million years of history and evolution from their primitive beginnings to our modern "advanced" world.
Jeff

>>Congrats and I love the pics. That initial "yawn" is the thing I saw that hooked me. It's as if a prehistoric event happens right in front of my eyes.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>>I had a friend over bringing some snakes he wanted me to sell for him at Daytona. While we were talking in the living room this old girl was starting into labor. Right after my company left I went into the snake room and saw she was just pushing out the first one. I kept the camera focused on the babies as they were coming out and opened some of the membranes to let the babies breath. Doing this got me several shots of their first yawns. Each time the pile reached five or six I transfered them to paper towels in plastic storage boxes.
>>>>The stats:
>>>>Mom is at least 15 years old. I got her in 1992 and she was very rough with an ugly scar on her face. She was just over 5 feet long and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce. I got her from Strictly Reptiles with the deal being if I could not get her turned around and putting weight on in a month they would make a financial adjustment. She gained weight right away but the scar on her upper lip has caused periodic respiratory problems and ugly mouth infections over the years. She has had a couple of regimens of antibiotics and I have used hydrogen peroxide and Q-tips to clean up her mouth as much as once a day for a month at a time. About 2000 I decided I was probably damaging her kidneys with so much antibiotics and decided to not treat anymore. She has actually been overall helthier since then but still has an ugly head for a BRB. She has had five litters before this one but with high percentages of slugs and low overall numbers. This litter was a pleasant surprise. 20 healthy babies with no slugs and no stillborns. I weighed one baby at 31 grams. For the last month she has looked like she was carrying an enormous load of slugs. She has been very very thin in her front half and thick and stiff looking in the back half. Palpating her she just felt very firm like slugs often do. After laying this litter she is very thin and weighs 3 pounds even.
>>>>Jeff
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>-----
>> When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.